Parker Actually Knocked
by Daria234
Summary: Parker/Eliot futurefic. Nate goes off the rails, the team breaks up, but then a few months later, Parker shows up on Eliot's door. Romance. One-shot.


It had started a few months after Eliot left the team.

Eliot, like all of them, had left because of Nate. Nate had starting drinking again when his wife got remarried, and had started to just take on whatever 'bad guys' were featured in the newspaper that day, no matter how dangerous they were. Sophie got sick the change and left. Again. Which only made Nate worse. And he wouldn't listen to reason or objections to any of his plans, and three separate times, Nate had almost gotten shot while Eliot was way too far away to protect him.

So Eliot had left. After telling Hardison and Parker that it would be safer to stop helping Nate destroy himself. But he knew it would take something worse to pry those two away from him.

So when a few months passed and Eliot heard knocking at his door, he was surprised to find Parker when he opened it.

She stood there, looking small. Like she was afraid he would slam the door in her face.

So Eliot did his best to smile and say, "Thanks for knocking, darlin'. I know it's not your preferred way of entering a building."

She smiled then, as Eliot let her into his apartment. He had been cooking dinner, and she happily leapt up onto the counter to watch and ask questions as he continued to prepare dinner, now for two. They made small talk, or as close as Parker ever came to making small talk, and they ate. It was oddly pleasant, Eliot knowing that it was hard for to come here and making a special effort not to push her away, and Parker making a special effort not to breezily make the kind of comments that made Eliot (the trained hitter) scared to be in a room with her.

It wasn't until after dinner that Parker told him. Nate had made her leave. Even Hardison had had enough and had left, angrily. And Parker had tried to make him stay, even blackmailing him, but that just made Hardison more angry.

So Parker had stayed with Nate all by herself. She kept asking him to plan some more jobs, but Nate was just getting worse. When she finally decided to just steal all his liquor every time he brought some home, he had kicked her out. And said some things to her that even Parker didn't ever deserve to hear.

Eliot hated hearing it. Nate had become his friend and team leader, but to Parker, Nate was more like her mentor. Or her father. And Nate was probably the only stable person she had ever had in her life, the only one who accepted her but also believed that she could be better.

Eliot could see Parker's guilt as she told him everything, her worry that somehow she was ratting out Nate. But at the end of her explanation she said, "So that's why I'm here."

And there it was. Eliot didn't have to ask to understand.

Parker came to Eliot because she had no place else to go.

And though he knew he was going to regret it, though he was already thinking of all the horrifying results that might occur, he said, "Stay here as long as you like, Parker."

* * *

It took some adjusting, but eventually, Eliot welcomed the change. He noticed that she was making an effort to learn how to act in public, that she was doing her best to be considerate when they were alone even. And he was impressed. Touched, even.

But when he tried to mention casually that he admired the woman she had become, Parker had misinterpreted.

She had lunged at him and kissed him, lips warm and wet, her hands grasping at his hair and face.

Though, if Eliot were really honest with himself, it wasn't a misinterpretation at all. He really had been looking at her different.

But he wasn't about to take advantage of her feelings of abandonment and betrayal and loneliness. And he told her so. He told her that though he thought she was beautiful and fun and full of surprises and a great thief and a truly good, decent human being, he didn't think of her that way.

And she responded, "Eliot. You know Sophie taught me how to spot a lie, right?"

Eliot grimaced then but found the strength to walk away.

==========------------------================--------------------====================------------=============

The next job they did, Parker picked a risky one. And Eliot didn't want to start a fight by saying no. And it all worked out fine in the end, and the clients got to keep their home, but not before Eliot and Parker had to run from a half dozen security guys who, based on their very distinctive style of running, were all former special ops.

And when they were finally in the clear, bodies pressed tightly together in the narrow passageway they were hiding in, hearts pounding and lungs gasping as their torsos bumped into each other's, sweat dripping and adrenaline coursing and fear and relief and excitement pushing its way through their bodies, she looked up at him. And, against his will, his body utterly betraying him, Eliot licked his lips.

And that was all the permission Parker needed. She came at his mouth, harder than she needed to, and her hands gripped his hips, stronger than he thought they would be. She pressed him even harder against the wall at his back, and he let her, savoring the need and heat of her tongue pressed between his lips. And his brain, the thing that knew that this was such a very bad idea, almost got a word in edgewise. But she stopped, and looked at him with eyes full of conviction and fire. And she said to him in an out-of-breath rasp, "If you say no to me, Eliot, I'll leave. You will never see me again. I swear it, I'll leave."

Eliot didn't say no to Parker after that. Not to anything.

Not when they got home and she pushed Eliot on to his bed. Not when she did the same thing in the morning but on the hard kitchen table.

Not any other time she decided that she wanted him for something. Anything.

The closest he came to saying no was when he came home to find her talking to Sophie on the phone. And when she hung up, she got her serious face on, the one she never used to have. And she said, "Eliot, when I came here, it wasn't originally because I thought we would get together."

"Safe to say it was a surprise both ways, Parker."

"I came here because I needed to regroup. To plan."

"Plan what?"

"How we're getting the team back together."

"Parker -"

"Listen. I know you're mad at Nate. We all feel... betrayed. But he gave us a chance when most people wouldn't. Especially me. And it's not just Nate that's lost, it's the whole team that needs to find each other. And I think that's what we should do."

"I'm sorry Parker, but I just don't think that's the reality of the situation."

"Reality can go bite itself in the ass!"

"While that i_s _an excellent point, are you sure you want us to go through this again? It's probably going to just be the same crap, another cycle. All that hurt you felt, that long process of our team - our family - falling apart? You want that again? Because that's all Nate has to offer us. Do you really want that?"

"Yes. If that's what it takes to help him. If we have to go through it a dozen times before it sticks, that's still what I want. Sophie has agreed to give it another chance if you will. And Hardison, I think we can get him back if the rest of us agree. So all we need is to re-recruit Nate. We owe him that much. And even if we didn't owe him, I'd want him anyway."

Eliot sighed, troubled. But some part of him couldn't help feel a swell of pride, of admiration. She really was a different person than when they met.

But Nate was the same. And Eliot knew it. And he asked jer, "How can you just forgive and forget, Parker? You got the worst of it at the end, with how he treated you."

She smiled. "I don't take many things personally. It's not like Nate cheated us out of our money or anything."

He smiled at her. "Fair enough, Parker. But if this doesn't work out the way you want it..."

"Then we'll be sad. But we'll still have each other. So are you coming to Boston or not?"

Eliot smiled. And he answered, "You know how bad I am at saying no."

* * *

Originally written for comment_fic at livejournal

Prompt was Parker/Eliot., he doesn't understand how Parker can so easily forgive and forget


End file.
